Mount of Lebanon: Too stuffed for bellydancing

DC’s ethnic food scene is rich but fragmented, with most of the hotspots located away from the District itself. Chinatown, for example, doesn’t really have any real Chinese restaurants left, just crappy tourist stuff.  The real Chinese have left Chinatown for Rockville, Maryland.  So sampling global culinary delights often requires a little bit of a trek.

Hence my friends and I drove out to Mount of Lebanon recently in Falls Church, VA.  Word on the street was that this was some of the best, most authentic Lebanese food around.  Driving up, Mount of Lebanon isn’t really much to behold, but then, we were there for the food, not the architecture.

I knew this was going to be a fantastic meal when the freshly made Bedouin-style pita came out with an interesting sesame and olive oil dipping sauce.  It was what pita is supposed to taste like, not the bready, spongy stuff that we buy in the grocery store.

There was so much on the menu that we wanted to try, so we decided to start off with the Ayah Maza platter to get a little bit of everything.  When the food eventually arrived, it was quite a sight to behold!  Hummus, foul, baba ganoush, kibbeh, falafel, tabouleh, makanek, soujouk…and there were only four of us!

The hummus was particularly delightful—smooth, creamy and full of garlicky flavor—as was the fresh and brightly flavored tabouleh. The kibbeh, ground lamb mixed with wheat and fried was an interesting counterpoint to the falafel.  Both were similar consistencies, but the kibbeh was alike a meaty, less spicy version of the falafel.

There were two types of sausages, Makanek, which were mild and lemony, and soujouk, which were theoretically spicy, but I found not to be too hot at all.  Both were delicious, if a bit overcooked.  One of my favorite things was the pickled beet and cucumber that came with a bunch of the dishes, including the makanek.  It added a sourness that helped brighten the meal and add a little crispiness to otherwise soft food.  The juice in the makanek bowl was quite delicious as well.  I would cut my link up into pieces and swish it around in the juice to soak up the lemony goodness.

Ah, and this was just the appetizer course!  We’d also ordered three entrees to split between the four of us.

There were both lamb and chicken schwarma platters. While the chicken did come with a tasty garlic cream, the lamb was the winner on flavor.  Served with more of the pickled beets, some fresh lettuce, tomato, and seasoned unions, it was quite tasty, albeit a little saltier than necessary.

We also ordered lamb feteh, which was unlike anything I’d had before.  It came in a round casserole dish and included the same lamb schwarma, covered with crispy strips of fried pita, and blanketed in a thick layer of rich yogurt.  It was very good, but extremely rich, and given all the other food we’d already consumed, I certainly couldn’t eat much of it!  Had I made it myself, I would probably  have used a lighter hand on the yogurt as well.  It was a bit overwhelming for the lamb.

All in all, a fantastic meal at an extremely reasonable price.  If you’re a fan of Lebanese food, it’s definitely a stop on the list.  They also have an extensive hookah list of flavored tobacco if that’s your thing (it’s not mine).

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Mount of Lebanon

2922 Annandale Rd

Falls Church, VA, 22042

(703) 241-2012

Layin’ Low at Lyon Hall

Clarendon continues on its streak of housing my favorite places in the DC area after I had a lovely dinner at Lyon Hall.  Lyon is sister restaurant to Liberty Tavern and Northside Social, both only a few blocks away, clustered around the Clarendon metro stop.  Together they form a triad of culinary power, sending shockwaves out towards the District and its feeble attempt at a food scene!  Ok, so maybe I’m getting a little carried away.  But Lyon Hall is a solid little bistro with good beer, good wine, and some delicious, affordable food.

Usually I find that the appetizers are really where the food shines at nicer restaurants.  The chef is freer to experiment with different flavors and more expensive ingredients since the amount used per serving is lower.  But at Lyon Hall I actually felt that our goat cheese gnudi appetizer was the weakest link of the meal.  Gnudi are made from cheese wrapped in paper thing pieces of pasta dough and cooked.  They’re kind of a cross between potato gnocchi and ravioli but with a higher cheese to pasta ratio.  The gnudi at Lyon were served in a traditional buerre blanc sauce with fresh fava beans.  The cheese was tangy and creamy, soft and delicate, and the butter sauce added a beautiful, rich counterpoint.  And I LOVE fava beans—these were done just right too.  But my one complaint was that the dough on the gnudi was too thick.  It almost felt more like ravioli than gnudi, and the proportions made the gnudi a bit too chewy.  The flavors were there, and if they fixed the dough, this little app could be an A+ contender.

My friend and I split two entrees for dinner.  The first was an arctic char on a bed of cucumber-white asparagus-radish salad with farro.  It was fresh and light, with interesting flavors coming through.  I haven’t really had arctic char very much, and was surprised by how much I liked the fish!  The skin on it was broiled to a salty crisp which really added texture and depth to an otherwise light entrée.  The fish itself was fattier than I expected, more like a salmon in texture but a subtler flavor.  The bed of salad was a very refreshing accompaniment as well—I particularly liked the brightness added by the pickled white asparagus.  The farro gave the dish enough heft to be filling, and whole grains like farro are uber healthy as well.

The second entrée was the crispy spring lamb.  The dish actually served lamb two ways.  There was a beautifully roasted loin, cut into gorgeous pink slices and topped with crispy bits of something I couldn’t identify.  Then there was a lamb confit, compacted into a brick and pan fried so that it was like a pancake of crispy, fatty, lamb deliciousness.  Paired with lusciously creamy mashed potatoes, some lovely sautéed veggies and a flavor-packed jus sauce, and the lamb was easily the star of the meal.

Too bad it took me this long to start really exploring the culinary offerings of Arlington!

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Lyon Hall
3100 Washington Blvd

Arlington, VA 22201

(703) 741-7636

Non-Chinese Chinese food: A Uygher feast in Shanghai

So when Americans think of Chinese food, what comes to mind is the Anglicized least common denominator version of Chinese food.  We think of fried rice, egg rolls, and General Tsao’s chicken.  We think of greasy, easy delivery.   And when Americans think of China, too often we think of one homogenous country.  Yet it is so. much. more.

While in Shanghai a group of us decided to take a break from the mainly Hunan Chinese fare we’d been consuming for a few weeks, and try the cuisine of one of China’s ethnic minorities.  Han Chinese may make up about 91.5% of the Chinese population, but that still leaves nearly 115 million people that belong to various ethnic minorities!

So off to Yeshari we went, to try some Uygher food.  Uygher’s are a Turkic minority group living in the Xinjiang Autonomous Region in northwest China.  They have been in the news in the past couple of years for protests demanding more autonomy or independence.   Uygher food is characterized by lots of roast meat, fresh yogurt, and a thick baked bread called nang.  Since Uyghers are Muslim, there was nary a pork product in sight, which is unusual in China.

Perhaps it was simply Chinese food fatigue, but I thought Yeshari was one of the best meals I had during my entire Asian invasion trip.  Everything was fresh and flavorful without being greasy or overly spiced.  We were a large group so we simply ordered a load of items and waited to see what came.

The baked nang was like an extra thick, doughy naan, which makes sense given the proximity and influence of India.  It was a big too heavy for me, but dipped into the sweet, fresh yogurt, it was a pleasant change.  There isn’t much dairy in Chinese cooking, so the yogurt was a phenomenon, and definitely made me feel like I was in the Middle East or on the Mediterranean somewhere.  Rather than in the largest city in China!

Fresh yogurt

There were also the Uygher version of dumplings, called samsas, filled with ground lamb and spices.  These were my least favorite thing at the meal.  The shell was from the same heavy dough as the nang, and I prefer my dumplings to have a flakier, lighter dough.  Still, the filling was good, and well seasoned.

Lamb Samsas

And of course there were kebabs! Ground lamb kebabs, beef kebabs, chicken kebabs.  The beef (or maybe they were mutton?) were my favorite.  So much flavor! So perfectly grilled! So simple!  There were also plates of grilled mixed meats and vegetables.  Also simple and delicious.

Ground lamb kebab

Beef kebabs

My favorite thing we ordered was also the most bizarre (big surprise! I liked the weird stuff!) On the menu, the translation called it “ox knee” and when it arrived…well that’s exactly what it was!  When I was little, my bubby used to put the beef knees in her chicken soup for added flavor, and I used to love gnawing at the cartilage when the soup was done.  Well, our Uygher ox knees weren’t so different, except that they were much bigger, and the kitchen had sliced the gelatinous cartilage into easily edible pieces.  There was also a wonderful dipping sauce with vinegar, spices, and something I couldn’t quite identify.  All my friends were suspicious, but we all agreed it was delicious!

Ox knee!

In an attempt to balance out the meal, we also ordered some fried green beans that were quite tasty and reminded me of something you would get in the states at a fancy Chinese restaurant.  They were fried with peanuts, hot peppers, and garlic.  Quite good, even if the frying did negate the healthiness of adding a vegetable.

We also had a bizarre but tasy noodle dish.  Apparently this is quite typical for Uygher food.  The noodles were pulled, cooked, and then chopped up into little pieces so that the dish looked like giant kernels of corn rather than boiled bits of pasta dough.

Usually, Yeshari has belly dancers as entertainment, but alas, we’d chosen to go on a Tuesday – the dancers’ one night off!  Frankly, the food spoke for itself.  And add in a bit of Uygher “black beer,” which was the closest we came to a domestic dark beer, and we were quite the satisfied customers!  The meal only served to remind me how little of Chinese cuisine I was actually able to explore during my brief two weeks in country.  So much more world to see and eat my way through!

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Yeshari

Uygher food

106 Nandandong Lu, Xujiahui

6468-6079

Near Tianyaoqiao Lu

Shanghai, China

The Great American Foodie Hoax

As a foodie, I freely admit that I am somewhat of a snob.  I prefer my veggies to be grown organically from heirloom varieties, my meats to come from pasture-raised heritage breeds, and everything to be as local as possible.  Partly, I think it just plain tastes better.  Partly, I like supporting small scale farmers in my community, and partly, I think it’s better for the environment. But in my quest for culinary perfection, I too have fallen prey to more than one marketing ploy and over-hyped product.

Kobe Beef

Bad news, folks.  If you think you’ve eaten Kobe beef before, and it wasn’t in Japan, you were bamboozled!  Yep, a new Forbes series sheds light on one of the greatest American foodie scams. The ludicrously succulent Kobe beef exists…it just isn’t exported, and it certainly isn’t reproduced faithfully anywhere else in the world.  So that ludicrously expensive slider you just consumed the other night with your locally crafted beer?  Well that was just regular old meat.  I’m sure it was delicious, probably well-marbled beef.  But it wasn’t Kobe.

The real deal - Kobe beef in Japan

So this got me thinking about what other foodie hoaxes and myths we fall for?  Not surprisingly, the two I came up with both also involve expensive ingredients.

Truffle Oil

Fake-out!

Truffles are one of the most expensive and sought after gourmet ingredients.  Real raw truffles, found by specially trained pigs in parts of Western Europe (and now Washington state!), are hundreds of dollars per pound.  To substitute for the real thing, many people—and restaurants—use truffle oil.  Just one problem…there is no truffle in truffle oil.  It’s a chemical reproduction of truffle flavor and scent.  Even the bottles that boast little bits of truffle dancing on the bottom have chemical truffle scent added to make it potent enough to satisfy consumers.  Does it really matter?  Real truffles have SUCH a delicate and subtle flavor that unless you live in a region where they’re dug up, it’s doubtful whether you’d truly get to experience their richness.  Fresh truffles lose potency rather quickly, so it’s not like you can store them in your cupboard for a rainy day!

Sacre bleu! Imposter!

Lobster

One of the most delicious things I’ve EVER eaten, was steamed Maine lobster, fresh off the boat in Portland, ME, drenched in butter and lemon juice.  Sweet, succulent, and addictive.  Maine lobster is sought after around the globe for its unparalleled taste.  Yet you see lobster on menus everywhere.  How is this possible?  Well, sometimes it is actually langostino, which is technically a crab rather than a lobster.  Other times, in pre-packaged food, there may be lobster flavored seafood.  Crazy, huh?

Untie me this moment! Let me defend my honor!

Anyone know of other foodie scams?

And special thanks to my little brother for continually pointing out food myths to me!

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China: Ole! It’s Hot Hot Pot!

Beijing in the winter is cold cold cold, and the sky is grey grey grey with smog and clouds.  But no worries, if you’re feeling a little chilly, muffled, and travel weary, I know just the thing to kick the life back into your arteries: Szechuan hotpot.

France has fondue, Japan has Shabu-Shabu, and China has hotpot.  Basically, it’s DIY eating in the atmosphere of a restaurant.  You order all manners of goodies to dump into the boiling vats of liquid, let is all cook, then take it out and slurp away!

There is no food name more aptly than hotpot.  Not only is a steaming vat of liquid served directly on the table— boiling, gurgling, and churning like a witch’s cauldron—but it is about as spicy as it gets.  Traditional hotpot is chock full of tiny little Szechuan peppercorns, ready to numb your lips and shock your insides with their powerful kick.  We’re talking major spice here, not for the faint of heart.

My friends and I ventured over to “Ghost Street” for our hotpot adventure.  Ghost Street is a famous foodie attraction, with cute red lanterns hanging along a mile stretch of road filled with restaurant upon restaurant, many of the hotpot joints.  After asking a random security guard for a reco, we ducked into a joint and grabbed ourselves a table…not that it was hard to snag one. We were there at an awkward hour after the lunch crowds had cleared but before the early bird dinner diners would arrive.  Yep we had the entire adorable inner courtyard to ourselves!

The restaurant could have been more gracious about our oddly times meal, but it was more than slightly awkward feeling to have the entire staff staring at you and jumping to fulfill your request.  Not sure how the ancient emperors did it!  Now I need to make a confession before I continue with my story of fiery peppers.  I cannot take spicy food.  I am a terrible dinner companion for spicy meals—my tongue simply cannot take the heat.  So while I tasted the spicy side of hotpot, I did not really indulge.  Instead, my friends and I got this neat little double dipper option with a tub of chicken broth seated neatly in a ring of spicy traditional hotpot broth.  It was quite the setting!  Like a moat of spicy chilies protecting my taste buds with the inner sanctum of broth.

We ordered a range of items to dump into the pots, varying from the processed (spam), to the homely (chicken balls), to the adventurous (coagulated duck blood).  Truth be told, the whole meal was a lot of fun—I always love playing with my food—but I was underwhelmed on flavor and taste.  The mild chicken broth was very good, but still just a basic broth.  So without partaking in the spicy side of hotpot, the flavors were left to the ingredients we cooked, and let’s face it, pig intestine isn’t really all that appetizing on its own.  Nevertheless, here is my analysis of some of the different flavor experiences.

Mutton: I think we technically ordered lamb, but what arrived was mutton, apparent from the strong gamey flavor of the meat.  I love lamb, but it was actually a little overpowering for me.  Interestingly, the plate came with a quail egg that the waiter burst and spread on the meat before dumping it into the broth.  It was a nice touch.

Intestine: I just don’t like intestine.  My friends thought it was good, and I don’t have any qualms about eating it in theory, but every time I try intestine (including this time) it just tastes like intestine to me.  There’s something pungent about it that disgusts me. But I did try it!

Duck Blood: This was a new one for me.  The blood comes in little rectangular cakes that have the consistency of jello mold or custard.  It’s pretty much like eating rusty, iron-flavored jello.  Not my cup of tea.

Eel: This was the house specialty, but waiter said that it was only good in the spicy hotpot.  I asked him to include a couple pieces in my mild broth so that I could taste it.  Normally I like eel, but this was very fishy tasting, and the strong flavor, overwhelmed the broth and made it fishy for the rest of the meal.

My favorite items were the winter melon, bean curd skins, and chicken balls.  The chicken balls had good flavor and texture, reminding me somewhat of my mom’s matzah balls.  Winter melon, if you’re not familiar with it, is a squash-like green vegetable.  It absorbs the flavor of whatever it’s cooked in and has a delicate texture similar to honeydew.  In this case, the mildness of the melon allowed the broth to show its best side, and was a nice counterpoint to the gamey meats we tried.  The bean curd skins are more of a textural thing as well since they don’t have much flavor themselves.  I love them, but it’s not for everyone.  They are literally paper thing skins made from soybeans, doubled over on themselves to create little bundles of chewiness.  How ironic that I, the adventurous eater, liked the two vegetable products the best!

Double double toil and trouble…

Full list of items ordered for hotpot:

-          Beef

-          Mutton

-          Pig intestine

-          Coagulated duck blood

-          Eel fillets (their specialty)

-          Spam-like processed meat product

-          Chicken balls

-          Fish balls

-          Winter melon (my fave)

-          Bean curd skin

China: Duck, duck, goosey ducky goodness

One thing that surprised me about mainland China was the abundance of malls everywhere.  The New World mall, the Super Brand mall—floor upon floor of merchandise both cheap and luxurious.  Well perhaps it should not have been surprising to me then that the best meal I ate in Beijing was…in a mall.  That’s right folks, inside a mall.  It reminds me of the great gas station sushi in Arkansas.  But unexpectedly situated in the New World mall, just a few blocks away from our hotel in the Chowenmen area, lay Bian Yi Fang, a Peking duck restaurant recommended in guide books and highly rated on trip advisor.

When choosing a Peking duck restaurant, a specialty in Beijing, there are no shortage of options.  We ended up settling on Bian Yi Fang partly because of its convenient location and no need for reservations. We arrived just before the evening rush (I wish I could say it was by design, but really just blind luck) and opened up their massive menu.  There were page upon page of beautiful, delicious looking dishes, with picture paired by both the Mandarin and English names.  After a brief consultation with the waitress, we settle on the flower essence Peking duck because it came with pancakes and was their house specialty.  We also ordered some stir fried duck gizzard, Chinese broccoli, and sweet and sour pork.

Now I know what you’re thinking: “sweet and sour pork? How American can we get!?” But the waitress insisted that it was one of the most popular items and was very typical Chinese cuisine.  And we were not disappointed.  This was sweet and sour pork as it was meant to be.  No excessive breading, no artificial colorings and thickeners.  Just ooey, gooey, porky goodness.  It was like a party in my mouth. Seriously.  The sweet and sour sauce tasted fresh and real, with none of the fake fruitness that you get in the states.  It was a thick sauce, but not held together by corn syrup.  And it was delicious.  The pork was just fatty enough and not overdone.

The stir fried duck gizzard was equally fulfilling.  It came loaded with fresh garlic and wilted greens.  The flavor was surprisingly complex and the texture was light and fresh.  I loved it.

And of course, the crown jewel of the meal was the Peking duck itself.  It turns out that the “flower essence” part of the order just meant that they gave us flower petals to pair with the duck along with our scallion, hoisin sauce, and pancakes.  Unlike the pancakes I’ve received in the states, these weren’t little bao, but more like mu shoo pancakes.  They were quite tasty though, and showcased the beautiful flavors of the meat.

Ahhh, the duck meat!  Just watching them butcher it behind the table was enough to make your mouth water (as if the smell hadn’t already done so). They’re so adept at it too.  It’s pretty impressive to watch them slice off perfect little pieces of skin and fat and luscious meat.

The presentation was almost as nice as the taste: slices of breast meat on one duck shaped white porcelain dish, skin and thigh meat on another.  And the flavor…duck fat is truly a magical substance, with the ability to render otherwise normal meat excruciatingly flavorful, somehow both sweet and salty at the same time, with a luxurious richness.  Roll it up with the petals, hoisin, and some scallions and you have Chinese heaven!

 

And of course, what fatty Chinese meal would be complete without local beer?  None.  That’s the answer.

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Bianyifang

2 Chonqwenmenwai Dajie Jia

Beijing, China

Phone: 010-6712 0505

Hong Kong market day

Whenever I travel I love looking at the local markets.  They give you such a strong understanding of the culinary influences in the region and give you a context for understanding how people relate to food.

In Hong Kong, there was an awesome wet market outside of Dragon Restaurant that we stumbled upon.  Being an island, Hong Kong offered a plethora of fresh seafood.  And when I say fresh, I mean fresh.  As we walked by one fishmonger, I noticed that the fish was still bloody.  It was so fresh, and so freshly butchered, that the blood hadn’t been drained.  Mesmerized, I looked closer…and noticed that this fish was so freshly butchered that its heart was STILL BEATING!  I kid you not.  The fish had been beheaded, sliced down the center, but it hadn’t been gutted, and the heart (the small red dot in the photo) was still thumping.  No wonder there was blood everywhere!  Now that is about as fresh as it gets.

Freshly butchered fish with BEATING HEART!

Beyond the large fish that we saw filleted, there at least a dozen other varieties for sale along the street.  The eyes were clear, and it was free of fishy smell, both indicating that they were extremely fresh.  And for 15 Hong Kong Dollars for a couple medium or a handful of small fish, you can eat fresh for cheap! (15 HKD ≈ 2 USD).

Fresh fish for sale

Shellfish was also in abundance –and still alive and kicking!  There were shrimp of varying sizes, from mini little guys, to the medium shrimp we’re used to seeing in the US, all the way up to giant tiger prawns.

Fresh, live shrimp for sale

My favorite were the giant blue lobsters in tubs.  The colors on these things were amazing!  They had gorgeous blue tails and long, long antennas, giving them a gracefully alien look.

The seafood on offer veered to the obscure as well.  Well, obscure for us Americans, but normal for the Chinese!  There were fresh abalone clinging to the side of the crate.

Live abalone

And enormous geoduck, which I’d never seen outside of Seattle.  Oddly, I never saw geoduck on any menus, despite being relatively common at these markets.  I wonder if the Chinese refer to them as something different.

Live geoduck

And of course, there were crabs, with their claws tied back with bamboo leaves.  The Chinese crabs were much prettier than anything on the US side of the world, with dark mottled shells, but as I found with my spicy crab experience, they’re much less flavorful than dungeonous crab or the lovely Maryland blue crabs that we get in Washington DC.

Beyond seafood, the market had some gorgeous veggies on display, as well as meats, fresh bamboo shoots (no canned here!) and bean curd products of every type—tofu, fermented, dried.  It was an incredibly rich market in the span of a couple blocks.  If I ever move to Hong Kong, I certainly know where I’ll be grocery shopping!